Golly. For a moment today it looked like an old Christopher Lee movie. When somebody opens the window, daylight streams in, and all the Con vampires turn to stone. But alas, it was only Stephen Harper having a REALLY bad day. A day when you really had to wonder whether he's losing control of his party, and/or losing control of his faculties.
I didn't want to blog tonight. I just wanted to enjoy Christmas. But I couldn't get these two contrasting images out of my mind. Chief Theresa Spence slowly starving to death. While Stephen Harper, with a weird look on his face, plays cribbage.
It was a compelling story. A young Syrian-American lesbian blogging about life and love in the darkness of a police state, only to be kidnapped.
Arraf wrote a blog called "A Gay Girl in Damascus," a mixture of erotic prose and updates about Syria's violent uprising, including her participation in anti-regime protests. She was detained after weeks on the run in the Syrian capital, family members said Tuesday.
Except that Amina wasn't wasn't Amina. She wasn't kidnapped. And the Gay Girl in Damascus was written by a guy.
The Gay Straight Girl Guy in Damascus Scotland claims his motives were noble.
I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative voıce may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.
Because of you, Mr. MacMaster, a lot of the real activists in the LGBT community became under the spotlight of the authorities in Syria. These activists, among them myself, had to change so much in their attitude and their lives to protect themselves from the positional harm your little stunt created. You have, sir, put a lot of lives, mine and some friends included, in harm's way so you can play your little game of fictional writing.
As for me I don't know what to think. The fact is that blog focused a lot of international attention on the fascist Syrian regime, and the oppression of LGBT people. Which is great eh? Unless you live there, and the international community won't do anything to save you.
And then there's this:
But at least these things are true.
All kind of people are being oppressed and murdered in Syria, including a lot of real gay girls in Damascus. While the world looks on helplessly.
The truth may or may not be stranger than fiction. But only it will set us free.
They have tortured him for almost a year. They want to sentence him to death, just for telling the truth. But for the war criminals at the Pentagon, even that is not enough.
Pfc. Bradley E. Manning, the Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking government files to WikiLeaks, will be stripped of his clothing every night as a “precautionary measure” to prevent him from injuring himself, an official at the Marine brig at Quantico, Va., said on Friday.
Now they must humiliate him.
There can be no conceivable justification for requiring a soldier to surrender all his clothing, remain naked in his cell for seven hours, and then stand at attention the subsequent morning,” he wrote. “This treatment is even more degrading considering that Pfc. Manning is being monitored — both by direct observation and by video — at all times.”
Let's review Manning's detention over the last nine straight months: 23-hour/day solitary confinement; barred even from exercising in his cell; one hour total outside his cell per day where he's allowed to walk around in circles in a room alone while shackled, and is returned to his cell the minute he stops walking; forced to respond to guards' inquiries literally every 5 minutes, all day, everyday; and awakened at night each time he is curled up in the corner of his bed or otherwise outside the guards' full view. Is there anyone who doubts that these measures -- and especially this prolonged forced nudity -- are punitive and designed to further erode his mental health, physical health and will?
And why is this happening? Because the Obama administration is conducting the biggest crackdown on whistleblowers since the days of Richard Nixon.
So much for the human rights champion.
So much for Yes We Can...
Oh boy, when I see what's happening all I can think of is how could we have left Omar Khadr, a Canadian kid, in the hands of those Pentagon bastards?
When I think of what they're doing to Bradley Manning, stripping him naked to try to break him. And I know that they're doing that because he's gay.
A 13-year-old Longueuil girl died Saturday night as a result of injuries she sustained Wednesday when police say her 71-year-old father slapped her and she went into a coma.
But so far, so bad.
Shocked neighbours Monday described the girl as a "ray of light" who played happily with their children and used to give hugs to some of the other mothers when she came home from school.
But neighbour Linda Robert said Noutene had been quieter in the last two years. Her father was demanding, Robert said, and could be heard sometimes yelling at the children or his wife. On the evening that she was struck, neighbours said her father was calling in to recite her prayers, as he often did. She was reluctant to go, as she often was, neighbours said.
"Even when she was young, she hated going in for her prayers," Robert said.
In the meantime, I've got two questions of my own.
How do you "slap" a child into a COMA?
And at a time when gay kids are dying because of religious intolerance, should anyone be surprised?
In all the years this young Canadian has been jailed in the most sinister prison on earth, we have never heard a word from him.
Except for that ghastly CSIS interrogation video, where he realizes that the Canadians he thought had come to help him, are collaborating with his torturers. And weeps with despair.
So I was really glad to read this letter from Omar Khadr.
Dennis you always say that I have an obligation to show the world what is going on down here and it seems that we’ve done every thing but the world doesn’t get it, so it might work if the world sees the US sentencing a child to life in prison, it might show the world how unfair and sham this process is, and if the world doesn’t see all this, to what world am I being released to? A world of hate, unjust and discrimination! I really don’t want to live in a life like this.
Coming as it does from the loneliest and most abused Canadian in the world, the letter both impresses me with its power.
And scares me.
I know it is hard for you. Just think about me as a child who died and get along with your life. Of course I am not saying that will or willn’t happen but its on my mind all the time.
Because if anything tragic should happen to this young Canadian, this child soldier, this victim of violence, gross injustice, and racism, the ugly stain on our country will never be erased.
But ultimately it inspires me.
I’m so sorry to cause you this pain, but consider it one of your sons hard decisions that you don’t like, but you have to deal with, and always know what you mean to me and know that I will always be the same person you’ve known me and will never change, and please don’t be sad and be hopeful and know that there is a very merciful and compassionate creator watching us and looking out for us and taking care of us all, you might not understand these thing, but know by experience they have kept me how and who I am.
With love and my best wishes to you, and the family, and everybody who loves me, and I love them back in Canada, and I leave you with HOPE and I am living on it, so take care.
Because I believe it clearly shows what everyone who has ever met him has said. Despite the long agony he has endured, Omar Khadr has managed to hold on to his humanity. He is not a fanatic, and could easily be rehabilitated and reintegrated into Canadian society.
And I also love the way he spells HOPE. Like I do. Because if he can hold on to it in Guantanamo, I can hold hold on to it in Stephen Harper's Canada.
And what more can I say eh? Except what I've said for years. And always will say.
I know most Canadians don't care about Omar Khadr. I know I live in a country where many people actually hate him.
Even though he almost certainly didn't throw the grenade that killed an American Special Forces soldier. Even though he was a child soldier.
I've written so many post about this shameful travesty of justice, I don't know what more to say. Except that this really bothers me.
“He is a young man in an adult’s body now,” Edney said. “He appears to have given up hope. He doesn’t wish to participate in a process he sees as not only illegal but going against justice.”
It has always amazed me how that Canadian kid managed to hold on to hope for so long, after all the terrible things they did to him.
Dragged off to Pakistan by his crazy terrorist father.
Horribly wounded.
Tortured over and over again. Locked up for years in the cages of that hellhole called Guantanamo. Betrayed by his own government.
Through all of that he managed by all accounts to keep hope alive. Now this horribly traumatized young Canadian is apparently losing it. And that makes me both sad and angry.
The Federal Court has given the Harper government until Monday to intervene in Khadr’s case. If Ottawa did ask for his repatriation at this late date, there is no certainty that President Barack Obama, under his own domestic pressures, would agree. But it is time for Harper to show confidence in the Canadian legal system and make the request.
Stephen Harper should do the right, decent, and Canadian thing and make that request. But I doubt he will because he knows a wedge issue when he sees one.
And this sinister, inhuman, authoritarian would rather appeal to the basest instincts of the population. The kind of people who are shrugging their shoulders at the massive violations of human rights that occurred during the G20 summit.
Oh boy. What more can I say? Except hurray for Jeremy Dyer.
Because my parents taught me to try and be a good and kind person, and to stand up for my rights and the rights of others.
So I wouldn't shake Harper's hand either.
And of course, whatever they say, or whatever they do.
I don't know what's more disturbing. This chilling account of what it was like to be a prisoner in the G20 detention centre.
We start losing it a little bit. Saying to every officer, “You know this is wrong, look at us in here!” We hear from the other cells that some only have 20 or 15 guys. Why is this happening? How is this happening? Some guys start screaming, kicking the cage, and shaking it. We can hear this happening all over the place. We yell for help, some cops are laughing, some look devastated and helpless. I’m so thirsty and I’m screaming for water. It felt like nothing I’ve ever felt before. A prisoner. Innocent. Screaming at my captors for water. Right then my heart broke.
Or this video of a gay teenager describing how he and other gay prisoners were segregated.
What I do know is that by now it should be clear to everybody that something horrible happened last weekend.
We absolutely need to know who gave the orders to start arresting so many innocent Canadians.
Whether the chain of command led all the way to the Harper Cons.
And why so many decent people were treated so badly. While the real criminals were allowed to escape.
And the only way to find out the truth is to hold a public inquiry.
Many Canadians may not want one. The politicians may be too scared to call for one. But we must continue to push for one anyway...if we love our country.
Because those who don't learn from their mistakes are condemned to repeat them.
And something like this, so horrible and so un-Canadian, must NEVER happen again...
